Heart Of The Smith
by WitchyWolf1
Summary: A new ALO update with a new legendary weapon. When the update goes live Kirito and the gang can't wait to attempt to down the new bosses for a shot at a new weapon. But when Asuna is a no show he can't help but to worry. That worry is compounded when Rika (Liz) spots her outside of the game with another guy. Has she stabbed Kirito in the back and will Liz able to help
1. The Update

Chapter 1: The Update

"Link start!" Rika's heart was pounding as she felt her consciousness leave her bedroom and dive into the most popular VRMMO on the market right now, Alfheim Online. It had been several days since she had last logged on. School and family life had been keeping her pretty busy, but she was more than ready to be Lisbeth once again. The largest update in the history of ALO was scheduled to go live in just under 10 minutes and she knew that everyone that played was overly excited about the new content. Several new dungeons of both lower and higher level for new and old players alike. A brand new end game level raid that, if the leaks were true, the boss of had the chance to drop a legendary weapon with stats that had never been seen in the game before. And of course most importantly for Liz, tons of new crafting items that could be used to make all new weapons and armor. She could just see the all of the people that would be pouring into her shop looking for the newest weapons.

Lisbeth opened her eyes to the sight of bright blue skies and fireworks exploding overhead. Thousands of players were standing around jostling each other in the center square of the market district. Some were already forming parties and groups, while others, Liz noticed, seemed to be checking equipment or looking for other players whom they would normally be playing with. It was complete chaos and the noise level of the chattering players made it hard for Liz to even hear herself think. She took a quick glance around but knew that even if any of her friends were online already she would never see them mixed in the throng of people. The only think that Liz could do was to pull up her friends list and hope that someone would be online. The name that she saw pop up made her smile widely. Of course Kirito was the first one of her friends online. She would have expected nothing different. He was always first on for any updates no matter how small or large. Her friends list showed that Kirito was actually sitting in a small back alley tavern not to far from her. Liz took off running as fast as her legs would carry her, apologizing to other players that she bumped into, in the direction of the small tavern.

The tavern was packed. Players were taking up all of the tables, talking loudly and sipping various drinks. Liz stood on the tips of her toes and quickly glanced around the room. Kirito was sitting at a table that he had to himself tucked away in a dark corner. He looked to have his inventory open and sorting through his items. Liz assumed that he was making sure that he was properly stocked on potions before any run that they would be doing. She walked over just as he closed out his inventory and took a long pull of what looked to be a dark ale.

She sat down gently in a chair right next to him and casually rested her chin in her hand. "Buy a lady a drink?" She said smiling and elbowing him playfully.

"You got it," Kirito responding returning her smile and waving at one of the NPC's to signal for another ale. A bubbly looking NPC walked over and sat a tall glass on the table. He handed her a few coins and she walked away with a smile and a thank you. "Are we the only ones on yet?" Kirito asked glancing at Liz as she took a generous sip of the ale.

"For the moment we are," Liz said taking another sip of the cold beverage and nodding a silent thanks to Kirito. "I'm sure the others will be here soon enough though. I know they have to be just as excited as we are about this update."

As if magically summoned by her words, Leafa, Sinon, and Silica appeared on the opposite side of the tavern and looked around. The three girls spotted Kirito and Liz right away and ran over smiling and waving. Drinks were placed in front of them as soon as they sat down. A moment later Klein and Agil walked in and over to them.

"Yo, what's up Kirito?" Klein said excitedly smacking him on the back and pulling up an empty chair while Agil leaned against the wall and nodded at each of them. "So did you guys hear the rumors yet?"

Kirito opened his mouth to respond, but Liz beat him to it. "You mean about the legendary weapon?" She exclaimed. "I don't usually put to much stock in simple rumors, I mean we've heard rumors like this before and that's all they've been. This time feels different though. If it's true I wonder what it could be."

"Whatever it is, I want it!" Leafa said bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Kirito already has Excalibur and Klein has that hammer, so I figure I could use whatever it is."

"Excuse me," Klein said indignantly pointing a finger at Leafa, "but I can't exactly use that hammer. It's just kind of sitting there taking up inventory space."

"Not our fault that you hammer skill level is ass," Sinon said smiling and Silica burst out laughing.

Everyone was laughing and ripping on each other while discussing the possibility of a new legendary weapon. Everyone except Kirito that is. He found himself distracted and pulled up his friends list. It showed Asuna offline. This was most unusual as she was always among the first in their party to log on whether they had a run planned or were just meeting up. Kirito contemplated logging off for a few minutes to try to reach her by phone, but decided against it. He didn't want to interrupt if she was busy with something irl. Kirito figured she would be on soon anyway and they could all start trying to conquer this new content together.

"Kirito...yo Kirito!" Agil's voice sounded far off, but it was enough to penetrate his thoughts. Kirito looked around and noticed that the whole party was not staring at him.

"Are you okay man?" Klein asked giving him a sharp smack on the back. "You were totally spaced out."

Laughing and running a hand through his hair, Kirito looked around at everyone. "Yeah, I guess I did. Sorry, I was just thinking. What were you guys saying?"

"What he was saying," Liz said poking Kirito playfully in the cheek, "is that the bosses we will be dealing with in the update will be unlike anything we have every faced before."

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

Liz sighed. This was unlike him. Kirito was usually on top of all of the information for raids. "What I mean is that the fights are supposed to be the hardest in the game. From what I have read you can not even enter the dungeon unless you have a group of 6 or more and they highly recommend at least 8. On top of that, only the first group to take down the boss gets this rumored legendary weapon." She took a quick breath and smiled. "I think that we all know that party needs to be ours!"

Kirito let out a low whistle. "It'll be a race then. With a lot of hard fighting along the way, plus it looks like we are going to be a player down as well."

"Yeah, where is Asuna?" Leafa said looking around the tavern as if she expected the Undine to appear any second.

"That's a very good question," Kirito said. "Has anyone actually talked to her today?"

It was Lisbeth that spoke up. "I tried calling her earlier, but it went straight to voicemail," she said.

"That's strange," Kirito said looking around the tavern. It was quickly starting to empty. Entire groups of players were teleporting away, all anxious and eager to take on the new content and hopefully have a chance at whatever that legendary weapon was.

"Well there isn't much we can do about it," Sinon said. "We'll just have to do our best without her and hope no other party beats the boss before us."

Kirito hated to admit it, but Sinon was right. They were already behind other parties who had left already. If they held out any longer they would have no chance to be the first to down the boss. He looked once more at the now barren tavern, only a few stragglers remained, probably waiting on the rest of their own parties and stood up. "Well guys, let's go get a legendary weapon!"

Author's Notes:

I have been sitting on this one for a long time. This first chapter has been written and rewritten many times over and for a while I had given up. I hope you all enjoy it.


	2. Battle

Chapter 2: Battle

"Liz! Attack for the right!" Kirito called out while dodging out of the way of a massive swipe of razor sharp claws. "Agil, go left! Klein, Sinon, and Silica above! Leafa fall back and heal!"

A cacophony of words got lost in the midst of the fight, but everyone did as suggested. The dragon was one of the largest beasts that they had even encountered in ALO as well as one of the hardest fights that they had ever had, and it was only the first boss of the dungeon. It stood at least 25 feet tall and that was when it was on all four legs. Her height doubled if she stood up. Midnight blue in color and able to breath dark purple plumes of fire. Her color made her extremely hard to keep track of in the darkened stone room. She raised one of her massive feet and took another swipe at Kirito who managed to get his sword up in time to block it, but even still, he was thrown back several feet and crashed into Leafa who was still trying to heal herself. The HP bar in the corner of his field of vision showed that his health was getting dangerously close to dipping into the red territory. Despite everyone else slashing and bashing away at the dragon her first health bar had only dropped a very few millimeters. Kirito got to his feet and took off flying straight at the head of the dragon, dodging short bursts of fire as Leafa remained back to heal. He took a massive swing at the dragon, but his sword just seemed to bounce off of her snout.

Kirito dodged another claw swipe and flew straight up. "Sinon, swap places with Leafa and see if you can hit the dragon's eye!" He called out as the dragon turned her attention away from him and onto Liz.

Sinon fell back just as Leafa charged back in. She fired off several arrows, but only one managed to find it's mark. The dragon let out a deafening roar of pain that blew them all back. Kirito smiled, they had her weakness. He yelled for Sinon to continue with the arrows while the others charged back in for a full frontal assault. Sinon fired off several more arrows, but they all missed their mark as the dragon spread her enormous wings and with a single flap that sent the party flying back, took to the air with another deafening roar.

Kirito was the first to get back to his feet, but could only watch in stunned horror as the dragon released her largest flame breath yet that fully enveloped both Sinon and Leafa. When the smoke cleared, the only sign of the two girls were the tiny flames marking the spot where they had both perished. A wave of fury washed over Kirito and he grabbed his sword off the ground and took to the sky with a ferocious battle cry. He knew that death in here didn't really mean much, but after seeing so many people lost their actual lives in SAO he always fought with everything he had to keep everyone alive here. He dodged a flame blast and stuck his sword straight into the underside of the dragon. Her HP bar dropped marginally as Kirito plunged his sword deeper inside of her. She roared loudly and caught him with a devastating claw swipe that sent him crashing hard to the stone floor with only a few ticks of HP left.

As the dragon moved in for the killing blow, her mouth opened wide, Liz saw the flames rising up and did the only thing that she could think to do. She darted over in front of Kirito and attempted to shield him with her body. He tried to shove her out of the way, but it was too late. The dark purple fire enveloped both of them, instantly reducing both of their HP to zero.

Klein, Agil, and Silica were the only three left and they knew at that point that this fight was lost. 7 of them in the party and they couldn't even manage to do an entire HP bar worth of damage to the beast. She was indeed unlike anything that they had ever faced and the dragon was only the first major fight of this dungeon. They knew that it would only get harder after. Even knowing that the fight was already lost, the remaining three still continued to attempt to whittle down the dragon's first HP bar, but none of them lasted too much longer. Klein and Silica both fell from a massive swipe of her tail and Agil went down to fire as well.

Back in the tavern the party of 7 were all sitting around a corner table with drinks in front of them. As much as they wanted to be upset about being wiped out they were all in pretty good spirits. From the information that had been gathered not one single party had made it past the dragon and that made them all feel at least a little better.

"Man, how the hell is anyone supposed to take that thing down?" Klein was saying. "Seven of us and we didn't even get it's first bar down halfway!"

Agil took a sip of his drink and nodded his head. They had all known that it was going to be a tough run, but for something like to be the first encounter was borderline unfair. That made them think that the legendary weapon rumors had to be true. Even if they had Asuna with them it probably would not have made much of a difference. They would all have to meet up sometime very soon to try to stigmatize some way to take the beast down.

Kirito was looking at Liz out the corner of his eye. He wanted to ask her what she was thinking by throwing herself in front of him during the breath attack. Kirito knew that Liz was protective of him, just as he felt protective of everyone in the party, but for her to try to shield him from death was something that had not happened before now. He wanted to ask her about it, but right now did not seem like it would be a good time, especially in front of everyone. He would try to catch her when no one was around. Then again, maybe it was nothing, he thought to himself.

As time continued to pass by and Asuna still never logged on, the others started to sign off one by one. Pretty soon it was only Kirito and Liz remaining at the table of the tavern and she kept glancing at him. "Want to take a walk?" She asked and he nodded getting up.

The sun was starting to set in ALO. It made for an extremely beautiful evening to be out for a walk. Liz kept glancing over at Kirito and every time he caught her eyes, she would look away smiling embarrassed. He was still worried that Asuna never logged in, but for the moment Kirito was just enjoying the evening.

Kirito turned his head to look at Liz directly. She had a small smile on her face that for some reason set his heart racing. "So why did you throw yourself in front of me like that during the fight?" He asked her. "You must have known that you were going to die with me."

Liz looked down at the ground embarrassed. It was several minutes before she could manage to find the words to answer and while she was quiet, Liz never looked at Kirito. When she finally did start to answer, Liz still kept looking at the ground. "I honestly do not know," she said. "I saw that dragon bearing down on you and something just snapped in me. I was suddenly back in Aincrad and I remembered the time that we went hunting for the ore to make your new sword. You saved my life that day. I remember asking you almost the same thing."

"And I told you that rather than letting someone die alone that I would rather die with them," Kirito said remembering that icy dungeon that the two of them had undertaken.

Liz finally looked up at him. She had tears in her eyes as she clutched Kirito's arm. "I thought you were completely insane for thinking like that, but I think I truly understand now. Even though death in this game is not that big of a deal, even though you come back from it, I wouldn't have been able to stand seeing you die alone in here. I wanted us to go together."

Kirito didn't know what to say. He had always known that Liz had feelings for him, ever since she had ran off from the shop and he found her crying near a bridge. Part of him, deep down, had slight feelings for her as well, but his heart belonged to Asuna. It had always belonged to Asuna, even way back in Aincrad. It killed him inside that he had hurt her, and continued to hurt her. Kirito knew deep down that if he had never met Asuna that he would have fallen in love with Liz, but there was no use dwelling on what might have been.

Kirito grabbed Liz by the arm gently and pulled her into a tight hug. He wished that he could do more to help her. "I'm sorry," he whispered to her, genuinely meaning it. "If we had met in another time or another place. Or even if the circumstances were different, but there is nothing I can do right now."

Liz just clung to him tight, crying in his shoulder. She knew that she would always love him, but his heart belonged to Asuna. "It's okay," she whispered.


	3. Suspect Behavior

Chapter 3: Suspect Behavior

Rika was curled up on her bed in a fetal position. Tears poured out of her eyes nonstop as she clung to a small plush bear that was now soaking wet. It was past two in the morning, but she couldn't fall asleep. Rika knew that she was being stupid. She was not the kind of girl to sit here crying over something or someone that she couldn't have, but being alone with Kazuto today, even if it had only been a short period of time had brought up a bunch of old feelings. Not to mention fighting a dragon together, which had been the first type of beast that they had faced together back in Aincrad. She had to shake herself out of this. Kazuto would never be hers, and Rika knew that she just had to accept it. She sat up, shook her head, and used her tear stained plush bear to dry her eyes before walking to the kitchen for a drink. She eventually drifted off into an uneasy restless sleep.

Several hours later Rika woke up with sleepy yawn. Her short hair was sticking up all over the place in a wild mess. A small line of drool had dried in the corner of her mouth. Her eyes well red, slightly puffy, and a little swollen. When Rika looked in the mirror she wanted to cry again. She looked horrible. Rika wasn't totally surprised by her appearance. She had spent the night crying after all. All she knew was that there was no way that she would be leaving the house looking like this.

After a steaming hot soak in a bath and fresh clothes Rika felt a million times better. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do, but sitting around the house was not going to make anything better for her. Rika thought about logging into to Alfheim to do a little material gathering, but really didn't feel like it. She was thinking that a day away from the game would be good. A day outside sounded quite a bit better. She picked up her phone and gave Asuna a call. It went straight to voicemail. That worried her. She knew that Kirito attempted to reach her after everyone logged out last night and it was the same thing. Despite the fact that Rika was extremely jealous of Asuna, she hoped that nothing was wrong. It wasn't like Asuna to just go off the grid like this and to miss the first day of a new update in Alfheim was unheard of. Aside from Kazuto, Asuna was the biggest gamer that she knew. They had all taken a little time off of ALO to sink some time into Ordinal when it was new, but the novelty had worn off pretty quickly for pretty much everyone except Asuna who had spent more time in the AR game than anyone in their party.

Rika glanced out of her bedroom window and smiled at the bright sunshine that was lighting everything up. A day outside sounded like just the thing that she needed to clear her mind. She thought about calling Ayano or Suguha to see if either of the girls felt like going for tea, but decided against it. Nothing against her friends, but Rika just felt like being alone right now. Besides, they were probably all in Alfheim right now anyway. Rika knew that she needed to get her mind off of Kazuto and hanging out with Ayano or Suguha would probably just lead to talking about ALO which would make her think of him.

Rika pressed down on her shirt to smooth it out and walked out of her door into the bright sunlight. She had no idea where she wanted to go, but started walking down the street aimlessly. Surely some place would catch her eye. There wasn't a single cloud to be seen in the sky and the sun was glaring down so harshly that Rika had to use one of her hands to shield her eyes. The heat in the air was intense and within minutes Rika had droplets of sweat running down her face.

Eventually she came across a tiny little cafe tucked away in a dark back alley. Rika had never seen the place before. It was very dimly lit, small lanterns were placed on each of the tiny tables outside. Only two people could sit at each table and Rika blushed slightly thinking about the happy couples that must come here for romantic dates. She pushed the door to the cafe open and a tiny bell jingled when she walked in. Inside was even more dim than the outside. Fans hung over a few of the tables circulating cool air that felt amazing after being in the heat outside. There were only six people inside the cafe, but it looked full due to the small size of the building. She gave a slight bow to the lady standing up front, walked to an empty table next to a small window and sat down. A friendly looking waiter came over and smiled at Rika. She ordered an oolong tea and smiled as he walked away. She leaned back in her chair and started staring out the window. As bright and sunny as the day was outside, the alley took in very little of that light. It was not a street that she would want to walk down in the middle of the night.

The friendly looking waiter came back and set her tea down on the table. Rika took a small sip, holding the liquid in her mouth to savor the flavor for a moment before swallowing with a sigh of satisfaction. She took her time with the tea, enjoying every single sip and then ordered another one. The quiet cafe was indeed making Rika feel better. She made a mental note to come back here again. Just as she was about to get up and leave she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

It was Asuna. Asuna had walked up and sat down at one of the outdoor tables tucked away in a corner, but still in Rika's line of sight. She wasn't alone either; a tall man with dark hair and a wispy beard sat down across from her. They were both smiling at one another and Asuna's face was slightly red. What is going on here? Rika thought to herself, sinking low in her chair to try to stay out of sight as the same waiter who took her order walked outside to Asuna's table. The mystery man said something and Asuna burst out laughing.

Rika didn't like this. Asuna couldn't answer anyone's phone calls or messages, she missed the first day of the ALO update, but she was here with some guy. "Maybe it's her cousin or something," Rika whispered to herself, feeling ashamed of the fact that she was about to sit here and spy on one of her closest friends.

The waiter walked outside and sat two drinks on the table. One in front of each of them. When he walked back in Rika ordered yet another tea as not to be rude and just sit there. The man reached across the table and rubbed his fingers against Asuna's who looked around blushing. Liz scooted even lower in her seat which drew looks from a couple of people inside the cafe as Asuna slowly laced her fingers through his. "Not a family member then," she growled, her face going slightly red.

Rika didn't want to jump to conclusions, but this did not look good. What would Kazuto say? He was not the jealous type by any means, and knew that Asuna had many male friends, but he knew most of them as they were mostly all SAO survivors like themselves.

Rika continued to watch the two of them, taking her sweet time with what was her third tea now, trying to make it last because she couldn't really spare the money for a fourth. Asuna and her friend continued to sit there and enjoy each others company, all the while acting like two people who were together, but didn't want to be caught or seen together. When the man finally got up and left, Asuna continued to sit there and just smiled looking off in the distance as he walked away. Rika knew what she had to do.

She got up and walked outside, leaving what little remained of her tea behind. Asuna didn't even notice her there. "Asuna," Rika whispered sitting down across from her friend.

Asuna let out a small yelp as if she had received a small electric shock and looked around half expecting to see more than just Rika sitting there. "Oh, hi Rika," she said, her voice cracking slightly as she looked around. "I...I didn't know that you came here."

"I don't. In fact I just ran across this place today." Rika was doing her best to keep her voice level. She still didn't know that anything was actually going on, just that Asuna's behavior with whoever that guy was had been awfully suspect. "I've just been sitting inside having tea and trying to clear my mind. Who was that guy though, Asuna?"

Asuna looked like she couldn't even look Rika in the eye and it made Rika slightly angry. "Oh, um, just some guy that I met on Ordinal. We've fought a few bosses together you know, no big deal."

Rika stared at her with penetrating eyes, trying to get Asuna to meet her gaze, but she wouldn't. "Look Asuna, you're one of my best friends and I have never had reason to doubt anything you say, but that didn't look like 'someone that you just met on Ordinal'. It looked bad from where I was sitting. It looked like a date."

Asuna's head snapped up and she locked eyes with Rika who could tell that she was about to go on the defensive. "What are you spying on me or something?" She said with a slight amount of rage in her voice.

It was Rika's turn to be defensive now. "I happened to be here before you," she said, her voice rising slightly. "Sitting just inside as I said before. I am glad that I saw you though. We were all worried about you Asuna. You didn't log onto ALO to run any of the new content with us and on top of that you haven't answered any phone calls from not only me, but from Kazuto either! So what's going on?"

"Look Rika, I was playing Ordinal that day and just didn't feel like talking to anyone! And nothing is going on, but even if there was it would be my business! Yes, we are friends, but please just leave this alone." With that Asuna stood up, grabbed her bag, and walked away in a huff not even looking back at Rika.

Rika sat there in a stunned silence. She had never seen Asuna so hostile before, at least not when there wasn't a game monster involved. She didn't know what to think, but needed to tell someone about this. Rika pulled out her phone and sent off a quick text message. _Sugu, I need to talk to you, _it said. _Meet me at the house in Alfheim tonight, but make it late. After Kazuto and everyone else logs off for the night. It's important. _Rika hit the send button and stood up to walk back home, not looking forward to the long walk in the heat.

Asuna: Witchy! Why would you do this to me? You know I would never hurt my beloved Kirito!

Witchy: *Casually holds up a _Team Lisbeth_ sign

Author's notes:

I'm sorry about the slow paced chapter guys. This one was written as a build up. Bear with me as it is about to get good and intense!


	4. Truth And Denial

Chapter 4: Truth and Denial

"You're absolutely certain?" Leafa asked for what must have been the hundredth time since she logged on. It was after two in the morning and both Liz and Leafa had been sitting in Kirito and Asuna's house in New Aincrad for the better part of an hour. Leafa didn't want to believe what she had been told, but then again Liz didn't want to believe it either. They had both known Asuna for quite some time now and could not believe that she would do something like that to Kirito.

"I am," Liz said nodding grimly, thinking back to seeing Asuna with someone else and how aggressive she had acted towards her when Liz asked. "At first I thought maybe he was just a family member or something, but when I saw them start holding hands and the way that Asuna looked at him, I knew something was going on. And the way that she came at me, basically telling me to stay out of her business; I've never seen Asuna act like that before to one of us."

Leafa nodded and the two of them sat there in silence for several minutes. Leafa wanted to tell Kirito, he was her brother after all, but it would break his heart. And then if the whole thing turned out to be nothing but a huge understanding, would he forgive them for saying anything. But if they didn't and something really was going on and he found out that they had known and not said anything she knew that he would never forgive her.

"I think I should tell him," Liz said with a strong resolve in her voice, but Leafa shook her head.

"No," she replied. "He's my brother. I'll tell him that you saw something and brought it to my attention." Leafa looked down at the floor sadly, still not wanting to believe it. "Kirito will probably take the news a little better coming from me."

"What will he take better coming from you?" A voice asked coming around the corner of another room.

Oh shit, Liz thought to herself as she saw Sinon walk into the room. She didn't hear her materializing, so she must have been online already and walked in through the front. How had neither of them heard the door open? How much had she heard? "What are you doing here so late?" Liz asked, her voice sounding slightly panicked.

"I couldn't sleep," Sinon replied, "so I thought I would maybe do a little late night leveling. That didn't answer my question though," she continued, looking over at Leafa. "If someone will take something better coming from you, I can only assume that you are talking about Kirito, so what will he take better?"

"It's nothing," Liz said not quite looking at her and she knew right away that Sinon didn't believe her. Liz had really been hoping to keep this between just Leafa and herself, but that was not looking to be possible anymore. Why did Sinon have to pick the most inopportune moment to come in?

Sinon sighed and eyed the two girls. She knew they were hiding something and was determined to find out what it was. "Look," she said, "I know that it's not nothing, in fact judging by the look on both of your faces I would say it is something serious. So I am going to make some tea and when I come back in here, we can all talk it through." With that she walked off into the dark kitchen.

Leafa and Liz locked eyes. They both knew they were not going to have a choice in this. Sinon was one of the most stubborn people that they knew and with her unfortunately walking in just in time to hear the tail end of what they had been discussing, Sinon was not going to give in until she heard what was going on. Sinon came back in a minute later with a small delicate cup of tea for each of them. She sat down on the soft sofa across from Leafa and Liz and stared them down. "Spill," she said taking a tiny sip of tea as Liz and Leafa looked to each other.

Liz nodded her head towards Leafa who sighed and spoke. "Now, I don't know everything yet, but Liz told me that she saw Asuna on what looked to be a date with someone that was not Kazuto."

The fragile tea cup fell from Sinon's hand and shattered on the floor before vanishing completely. "Are you serious?" She asked with the same stunned expression of disbelief that Leafa had when Liz first told her. "What did you see?"

Liz nodded and proceeded to go over the entirety of what she had seen, her voice growing more and more angry as she went on. Sinon simply sat there in stunned silence, taking in every single word still not able to believe it. It was true that of everyone in the party, Asuna had known Sinon the shortest amount of time, but Asuna had never seemed like the type of person who would run around on someone. Especially someone as kind and caring as Kirito. And now Sinon understood what Leafa meant when she said that Kirito would take it better coming from her.

"So what are you going to do?" Sinon asked them. "You have to tell him. It'll be better to hear it from us, than to find out on his own, especially if he were to find out that we all knew."

"I know," Leafa said nodding. "It's not something I want to do, but I need to do it. Come on girls, we should all probably try to get some sleep. It'll be a rough day later." The all nodded in agreement before logging off.

The rest of the night for Suguha was spent in a combination of tears and anger with no sleep at all. Several times she crawled out of bed just to simply walk around the house in an attempt to keep her emotions in check, but it never worked. Once her twice she thought she had heard Kazuto get up for something to drink, but whenever she would walk to the kitchen it was empty. The time seemed to tick by at a snails pace which Suguha found kind of odd. When she was dreading something the time usually flew by in a flash. As the sun slowly started to creep up over the horizon she quietly walked out the back door to sit on the porch and watch it rise.

Suguha didn't know exactly how long she sat outside alone, but it felt like hours. She kept rehearsing what she needed to say over and over in her head and no matter how many times Suguha thought about it, she could never think of a way to tell him that would hurt less. He eventually walked outside with two cups of coffee and handed her one with a smile.

"Morning Sugu," he said taking a sip of the scalding liquid. "You're up awfully early. Normally it's like pulling teeth to get you up, especially when you don't have to get up." Seeing the drained look in her eyes and how disheveled her hair was, Kazuto eyed her. "You look like you haven't slept at all." When Suguha turned to face him Kazuto knew right away that something was wrong. Her eyes were puffy and red from crying. "What's wrong?"

Suguha took a shaky sip of coffee and leaned her head on Kazuto's shoulder. It was time. She had to do this. Her voice breaking slightly, she spoke slowly and quietly. "I…I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" He asked sounding anxious now. It was not like Suguha to get emotional like this. "Whatever it is, I am sure it's fine."

"Lisbeth….I mean Rika messaged me last night asking me to meet her in Alfheim. Said that she saw something that you needed to know about, but wanted to tell me first."

"Go on," Kazuto urged her.

Suguha took a deep breath before breaking the news. "She said that she was out yesterday, just walking around trying to clear her mind when she stopped off in a small out of the way cafe. When she was inside she saw Asuna outside. She said Asuna wasn't alone, that she was with someone. Some guy. Rika said that it looked like they were on a date, like they were holding hands and everything."

"What are you talking about?" Kazuto said looking at her. "What do you mean Asuna was on a date?"

"Exactly what I said. Rika told me that she saw Asuna on a date with someone else."

"No, she must have been mistaken," he said taking a sip of coffee and brushing the whole thing off. "It must have just been someone that looks like Asuna. There is no way that she would have been on a date. Even if it was her, the guy was probably just a friend, maybe a cousin or something."

"I...I don't think so," Suguha said softly. "Rika told me that when she walked out and asked Asuna about it that Asuna got very defensive and aggressive. Told her that even if something was going on that it was her business and that Rika should stay out of it."

"No, you're wrong...you're both wrong," Kazuto said sounding slightly defensive even though he didn't mean to. "Asuna would never do something like that. You'll see. I'll call her now." He pulled out his cell phone and punched in Asuna's number. It rang a few times and went to voicemail. "Hmm, must still be sleeping. It is still pretty early after all."

Yeah, still sleeping, Suguha thought to herself. Or maybe just ignoring the calls whenever one of us call because she knows that she is caught. Suguha knew that she just needed solid proof. Kazuto would never believe this unless he saw it with his own eyes.

"Look Sugu, I know you guys are just looking out for me, but I know Asuna. I've known her since the very first floor of Aincrad. She's not that tye of person." With that said he got up and walked back inside, closing the door a little harder than necessary.

It had been three days since Suguha had told Kazuto what she had found out. Three days since he had brushed it all off. Three days and nothing had changed. Asuna was still MIA and now it was not only Rika and Kazuto that couldn't get in touch with her. No one could reach her through text or phone call. Rika had been all over not only her own neighborhood, but Asuna's as well and saw no sign of her. Kazuto was determined to act like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but even he was starting to worry that maybe there had been some truth to what he had been told. Asuna had never been out of touch this long.

For lack of anything better to do, Kazuto put on his AmuSphere and decided to log some time in Alfheim. He hadn't been on since hearing the rumor's about Asuna, but Kazuto missed the world, missed his friends, and as weird as it sounded, he missed the fighting.

"Link start," he said quietly and felt himself sink into Alfheim. When he opened his eyes, he was once again Kirito. The house in New Aincrad was dark and looked empty which came as no surprise when he pulled up his friends list and saw that no one was online. He thought about going out and trying to take on a dungeon by himself. Kirito knew it would be suicide though so he just sat down and did nothing, hoping that maybe Asuna would get on.

It didn't take long for people to get on. The sound of the house door opening and closing told him as much. Kirito didn't even have a chance to pull up his friends list to see who it was before they walked around a corner and into the room. Lisbeth and Sinon walking and talking side by side. They must not have known that he was there based on the topic of conversation. They both fell silent as soon as they saw Kirito. He raised a hand and gave a small wave.

Sinon smiled and looked at Liz. "I think I will let you two talk," she said quietly. "Message me when you want."

"Mmhmm," Liz nodded at Sinon as she turned and walked out of the door. She walked over and sat next to Kirito without really looking at him. Liz wasn't sure that he even wanted to be around her. It was Liz after all that told Leafa about what she saw. Liz who was the reason that there was so much tension in the party at the moment. "Hi," she said smiling shyly hoping that he wasn't too upset.

"Hi there," he replied smiling and turned to look at her. "Been a couple of days huh?"

"Listen Kirito," Liz said. "I'm sorry about..."

Kirito raised a hand cutting her off. "I know you are doing what you think is right Liz, but I just can't stand to think that Asuna would be capable of cheating. I've known her for so long. We've been through so much together. We've all been through so much together, not only in SAO, but here as well." He reached over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Even I have to admit that this is strange though. She's never been out of touch this long. So why don't you tell me exactly what you saw or think you saw."

Liz nodded and began to once again recount everything that she had seen from inside the cafe including the way that Asuna had yelled at her. It didn't take long before tears started streaming down her face. She pulled up her friends list and turned it to face Kirito who took one look at it and noticed something missing. Asuna's name wasn't there anymore. "She deleted me," Liz said. "I noticed it the day that I found her."

Kirito pulled up his own list and checked it. Asuna's name was still there, but she was offline. Of course she was off line he thought. It was at that moment that he realized that maybe, just maybe Liz was being truthful. There was no way that Asuna was unfriend her after so long. Liz had been one of Asuna's best friends in SAO. "Some guy from Oridinal you said?" Kirito said, his voice breaking slightly for the first time as he let his head rest on Liz's shoulder.

"Mmhmm," Liz said laying her head on top of his. "That's what she told me. And I haven't seen her since that day."

"Liz…Will you show me the cafe?"

"Sure," she said. "Just let me message Sinon and tell her that I'm logging out for a bit."

An hour later Kazuto pulled up in front of Rika's house, idling on his bike. She walked out a few minutes later and gratefully accepted the helmet that Kazuto offered her. She climbed on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Kirito tightly before telling him exactly where the little cafe was. "Hold on," he said, revving the engine once and taking off, following the directions that Rika called out to him.

When they arrived at the corner of the street that had the cafe, Kazuto stopped the bike and the pair hopped off. He had never been here before, never even heard of the place, which was not surprising with how out of the way and off the beaten path it was. Asuna wasn't there. Rika wasn't surprised. She didn't really expect her to be. Kazuto stood and stared at the cafe for several minutes, all the while fighting an internal battle with himself. He knew that Rika had no reason to lie about anything, but he still refused to believe that Asuna would be capable of something like that.

"Come on," Kazuto said walking back to his bike. He didn't want to be at the cafe. Something about it felt off. Kazuto was starting to have this bad feeling deep in his gut.

Kazuto started the bike and it roared to life. He didn't need directions to where he was headed to now. Mind racing, he pulled away from the cafe with Rika once again wrapping her arms around him tightly. His heart was pounding harder than it had in a very long time. Kazuto had been to her house many times before, but had never just showed up uninvited before. It went against everything that he stood for, but he needed to see her. He needed the truth.

Half an hour later, he was parking the bike in front of Asuna's house. No cars were in the front, so he could only assume that her parents were not here. Good, he thought to himself. This would probably be awkward enough without them here.

Rika felt nervous for him as they slowly walked up to the front door. Kazuto raised his hand to know, but hesitated for just a moment. There was always a chance that Asuna wouldn't even be home. She could have been out playing Ordinal, but there was only one way to find out. He rapped on the door sharply three times and waited, holding his breath. Kazuto didn't have to wait long. The door slid open and there she stood in a tight tee shirt and shorts. Her eyes went wide and every bit of color drained out of her face the moment she saw Kazuto and it only took him a split second to see why. Kneeling at a small table behind her, a small tea cup in hand was a guy. The exact guy that Suguha had told him about. Kazuto's heart plummeted to the floor.

"K...K...Kazuto," Asuna stuttered looking like she wanted to just melt and vanish into the floor. "What are you doing here?"

Kazuto's eyes darted back and forth between Asuna and the guy in her house. "So, it's true then? Please tell me that it's not true. Tell me that there is some explanation."

"Kazuto, I," she started, but she couldn't come up with anything so Asuna just averted her eyes and looked to the ground in shame.

"I didn't want to believe it," he said, and Rika placed a gentile hand on his shoulder. "I had refused to believe it, but here it is, right in front of my face. Asuna, after everything we've been through! Everything we did and survived together in SAO!" Kazuto's voice was growing louder and louder without him meaning to. "How could you do this?"

The guy with the tea cup stood up and walked over to the door. "Kazuto, right?" He said. "I'm sorry that you had to find out like this. I've been trying to convince Asuna for the past two days that she just needed to tell you. Especially when she told me what happened at the cafe that day."

Kazuto balled up his fist. A wave of white hot anger boiled up inside of him and the only thing he could think about was hurting this man as badly as he was able to. He wanted to move Asuna out of the way just to get at him and Kazuto would have, if not for one thing. He raised his fist and took a step forward, but found himself being restrained.

"Kazuto! Kazuto don't!" Rika was screaming at the top of her lungs, not even sure that he was registering anything that was being said.

Rika's voice sounded so far away to Kazuto. The only thing he saw was Asuna's terrified face and the guy that she had been cheating on him with backing away. Rika must have been stronger than he gave her credit for because Kazuto found himself being dragged backwards. She appeared in his field of vision and he felt Rika's soft hands on the side of his face. "Look at me!" She was saying. "Just focus on me, and calm down."

Her voice finally started penetrating him and Kazuto stopped struggling. He looked over to Asuna who had tears in her eyes as she watched what was going on. "This wasn't how I wanted you to find out!" Asuna said, crying and falling to her knees. "This wasn't how I wanted it."

It was Rika who spoke up this time. "You're a coward Asuna, and that is not something that I ever thought I would be able to say about you, but it's true! Only a true coward would do something like this. You could have just told him, but no! You had to go sneaking around." She grabbed Kazuto by the arm and led him away from the house and back to the bike. He seemed to just be unable to speak at the moment.

The ride back to Rika's house was almost frightening. Not in the way that Kazuto controlled the bike, but he just seemed more like a zombie at the moment. Emotionless and just going through the motions. When they finally arrived back at Rika's house, she led Kazuto inside and began making a pot of strong tea. Rika shot off a quick text to both Suguha and Asada trying to explain what happened, but there was no way to really put it into a message so she just asked them to come over and be there for Kazuto. It didn't take long before they were both walking in the door and Rika poured tea for everyone. She explained everything that went on at Asuna's, including how she had to physically restrain Kazuto from attacking whoever the guy was. Kazuto simply sat there in an almost trance like state with millions of things running through his mind all at once. He didn't know what to do or how to handle this. He had risked his life to keep Asuna alive several times in SAO, and likewise she had risked her own life for him. They had sworn to each other to be together forever, but that all seemed to be over now. Nothing more than a distant memory. Kazuto didn't know how he was every going to get past this. At the moment he was wishing so hard that he had just died back in SAO.


	5. The Smith's Heart

Chapter 5: The Smith's Heart

The days seemed to pass by in a haze for Kazuto. Sometimes he wouldn't even get out of bed and others he spent hours and hours on end in Alfheim relentless slaughtering every single creature that he came across. No one had seen or heard from Asuna since the day that Kazuto had shown up at her house. She had vanished off of everyone's friend lists. Suguha spent just about every second that she could with Kazuto trying to get him to feel better. Klein and Agil had offered to take him out several times, but each time Kazuto had declined. Rika was at the house almost daily, and on occasion had even brought her AmuSphere so they could all log on from the same house. A few times they had attempted to take on the content from the update, but it always ended in a wipe.

At the present moment Kazuto was laid out in his bed, the AmuSphere slipped on over his head. It was an Alfheim day and Kirito was soaring through the sky, dodging fireballs that were being thrown at him by several airborne enemies that were chasing him down determined to end his life. A fireball flew straight past his head and he could feel the heat radiating from it. Coming to a sudden stop, Kirito quickly turned around and watched as the beasts soared passed him, unable to stop in time. He dispatched one of them with a quick sword slash to the back and held his sword up in front of him as they changed course and came at him head on. Dodging a few more fireballs, Kirito quickly took down two more of the beasts. Five more remained. He continued to slash and dodge with reckless abandon until Kirito heard the sound of a battle cry come from above him.

Lisbeth was charging down from above, the bright sunlight glinting off of her shiny mace. She plowed through the small group, bashing one with the mace and smiled as it exploded into fragments of what was essentially data. Pulling out of her dive Liz came to a hover right next to Kirito and gave him a small smile as he dodged a fireball and dispatched another beast. Those beasts that remained quickly fell and Liz found herself alone with Kirto. She gave him a small wave and shy smile which he returned with a smile of his own. The smile actually seemed genuine, the first real smile that she had seen in him since before everything happened. It warmed her heart to the core. Liz gently touched his shoulder and nodded to the city off in the distance urging him to join her for a drink. Kirito nodded and the two flew off at a high speed away from the open fields.

Off in the far distance, staring at the shrinking silhouettes of Liz and Kirito, her face tear streaked and body trembling, was Asuna. She hated herself for what she had done, alienating everyone that she had held dear to her heart. Asuna had never meant for any of this to happen, but it just did. As much as she hated herself for allowing it to happen, for not being able to control her heart better. Asunsa wanted nothing more than to just be able to go back in time and never even meet the guy. Asuna pulled up her menu and tearfully logged off for what she wondered would be the final time. She could tell just from what she witnessed that Kirito was going to move on, and had a feeling she knew what was going to happen already.

A few days later Kirito was to be found sitting in a small tavern staring into a half finished ale. He had been feeling ever so slightly better, at least enough so to be questing with his friends again instead of always venturing out on his own to fight. At the present moment, Kirito was patiently waiting for the rest of the party to get on, minus Agil, he wasn't able to miss work. They had decided to attempt the dungeon for the legendary weapon one last time. He didn't know if it would be any different than the other times that they took it on, but something deep down in Kirito's gut felt different.

The group walked into the tavern together and Kirito immediately stood up and walked over to them, leaving his ale half finished. "Okay guys," he said. "We all know what is coming up. No one has managed to take the dragon yet, but that changes today! We've failed in the past, but not this time. This time that dragon falls and not only does it fall, but everything else in our way falls as well. Today we conquer that place!"

Liz, Sinon, Silica, Leafa, and Klein all burst out in jubilant cheers, with Klein slapping Kirito on the back. "Welcome back man!" Klein said nodding. "Let's do the thing!"

Kirito nodded and smiled sweetly, looking over to Liz who blushed crimson. Leafa smiled and elbowed Sinon gently in the side urging her to look at Kirito and Liz. Sinon giggled just loud enough to pull Liz and Kirito back to their senses.

Liz looked around at everyone blushing deeper. Even Kirito had turned a slight shade of red. "Uh, well...no point in hanging around the tavern," Liz said hastily. "We've got a weapon to get!"

"Sinon! Keep shooting from above!" Liz blocked a swipe of the dragon's claws with her shield as Kirito, Klein, Leafa, and Silica charged in slashing like mad, slowly whittling the beasts HP bar down. The fight had been going insanely well so far. The dragon had just reached her final health bar and her attack patterns had once again changed. "If anyone goes down, do not respawn!" Liz continued shouting out instructions. "We're so close guys! We can do it!"

Sinon fired off three arrows in quick succession, each one finding its mark, the dragon's eyes. The dragon roared louder than ever and took to the air charging straight at Sinon who dashed out of the way at the final moment, avoiding a bite that would have ended her immediately.

"Last stage," Kirito shouted looking around at everyone. "You all know what to do!"

A chorus of battle cries echoed throughout the large chamber as the party took off flying after the dragon. Liz and Kirito caught each others eyes. "You ready?" She asked and when he nodded his head Liz took his hand and flew up after everyone else.

Sinon fired off another arrow hitting the dragon in the eye once again and dodged a retaliatory flame blast. Ten feet below the dragon's head, Liz released Kirito's hand and he shot off several feet above the dragon and everyone else. She started banging her mace and shield together in an attempt to draw the dragons attention. The plan was working; the great beast turned her eyes to Liz and took off like a missile straight at her. The dragon was fast, faster than any of the party thought, but not fast enough. Just before she was about to make a mid afternoon snack out of Liz, Kirito raised his sword and plunged it all the way down to the hilt into the top of the dragons head.

The pair went into a violent death spiral rocketing towards the chamber floor. The dragon roared and began spraying her dark purple fire in every single direction as her health bar dipped slowly to the red and finally vanished completely just before Kirito crashed into the hard stone floor, the remains of the dragons exploding into a shower of data. Kirito simply lay there panting as the others all landed gently beside him cheering and whooping louder than ever. Large white letters spelling out CONGRATULATIONS appeared near the exit door of the room and Kirito let out a sigh and smiled. They had done it. They were the ones to take down the dragon, not only that, but they did it two players down!

"Do any of you guys find it odd that we're not running into any trash mobs between the rooms?" Klein asked looking around the narrow staircase that was spiraling downwards.

"Yeah," Kirito said nodding. "Not only that though, it is also getting extremely hot in here. Like boiling hot." He wiped a few drops of sweat from his brow and continued down the staircase.

They eventually came to a large stone double door. Steam was pouring out from underneath and rising up, obscuring a small message that was engraved on the left door. Kirito placed his hand on the doors and pushed before jumping back with a yelp. His HP bar dropped to half as the doors opened and a thick cloud of steam poured out filling the hallway. An eerie reddish orange glow illuminated the room, but not enough to see anything yet. "What the hell?" Kirito exclaimed. "What happened to my HP?"

As the steam cleared, the message on the door glowed red. "I think this explains it," Liz said in a worried voice. "Inside rests what you are after," she continued. "But to claim it one must sacrifice half of their life."

"Sounds like this is the final boss room," Leafa said sounding half excited half terrified. "Let me cast a heat resist spell before we walk in."

The party walked in, a light blue icy aura surrounding all of them. Leafa had attempted a curative spell to restore Kirito's lost HP before the fight started, but it did not work. It looked like he would have to go this with only half of his health. That probably meant that one solid shot on him would kill him. Torches along the wall ignited to life at the same moment that the center of the room exploded in a shower of molten rock and lava. The floor continued to crack and split until each person was on a separate platform surrounded by lava. In the center of the room, on the largest section of rock was the boss. It was huge, at least twice the size of the dragon. Made of pure molten rock with lava dripping from its eye sockets. Four health bars floated above the titan's head. He held a golden mace with dark red filigree lining it in his massive hand and Kirito saw Liz's face light up. That had to be the weapon.

The titan summoned a giant ball of lava and hurled it at Leafa who took to the air and barely managed to dodge, but still lost a fraction of her HP due to the extreme heat. Kirito glanced around and noticed that everyone's health was slowly depleting. So it was going to that kind of fight, he thought. A timed fight. They would have to beat the boss before their health fully depleted and Kirito was already at a disadvantage with having half of his health drained before the fight even started. He knew what he held to do.

"Guy's give me twenty seconds!" Kirito shouted as the rest of the party took off, dodging balls of lava and rocks. They all nodded and he quickly pulled up his inventory, scrolling through his many acquired weapons. With a few quick taps, his black sword vanished off his back and was replaced by one of gold. Excalibur. He drew it just as a large rock flew at his face which he sliced in half with just the tiniest flick of his wrist. Kirito knew that he would have to make this quick. As high as his strength stats were, he could only wield the legendary sword for a few short minutes before it became too much for him. He took to the air and flew next to Liz who glanced at Excalibur and smiled. "Let's finish this."

Liz took Kirito's hand in her own and took off flying at the titan. The remainder of the party hand managed to chip away an entire health bar from him already. The titan didn't have a lot of health, but the stipulation that the party was losing health every second made this fight hard all the same. Kirito whispered something in Liz's ear and she nodded backing off from him by a few feet and he drifted off to the side. Kirito had one shot at this and if it didn't work, the titan would kill him easily. Liz slammed her mace against her shield a few times, the metal on metal sound reverberating through the chamber and the titan turned to face her. He lobbed orbs of lava at her in rapid succession, but before the could arrive, Kirito jumped in front, held Excalibur straight out in front of him and took off flying straight at the titan. The lava balls denigrated as he flew through them, but they still managed to drain Kirito's health extremely fast. By the time that he arrived at the titan, Kirito's health was down to only a sliver of red, and the titan had a bar and a half of health left. It was a suicide attack and Kirito knew that as soons as he flew through the lava balls, but it was worth it.

Liz saw what was going to happen a split second before it did and Kirito heard her shout at the top of her lungs, but it was too late. Two slashes of Excalibur was all he managed to pull off before his health dropped to zero and everything went black. Kirito exploded into data fragments leaving behind only a small black flame where he had died. His sacrifice had done it though and with a final push the rest of the party took away what little health the boss had left.

When it was over Leafa rushed over to Kirito's flame and quickly cast a revival spell causing him to pop back into existence with half of his health. Liz handed him a potion before smacking him sharply on the back and calling him a reckless idiot. They had done it though, felled the titan and cleared the dungeon. The stone floor quickly sealed itself, leaving no trace of lava behind and sitting there in the center of the room was the golden mace. It looked a lot smaller than when the titan was wielding it, but it was one and the same. Everyone watched as their only mace user and tank Liz walked over and slowly picked it up. With a triumphant yell she held it up high and swung it a few times getting used to the weight of it before storing it away in her inventory.

She walked back over to Kirito and offered him her hand to help him to his feet. Liz's face flushed when he took it. "Come on guys," she said. "Drinks are on me."

Several hours later the party was lounged out together on a hilly knoll. Kirito had his eyes closed, resting while everyone else sat around reliving the excitement of the fights and talking about Liz's new legendary weapon. She was in the same boat as Kirito when it came to the weapon. Liz could wield it for a few short minutes, but her strength starts were not anywhere near high enough to constantly use it.

Kirito sensed it before anyone else. Someone or something was flying at them extremely fast from a distance. He leaped up and took to the air, drawing his sword and staring off in the distance. "Something's coming!" He called to the others and watched as they too drew weapons and came to hover beside him and a moment later a player hovered in front of them. The last player that any of them expected to see. It was Asuna.

She stared at them all and Kirito could tell that she was about to cry. "Don't kill me," she said holding up her hands showing them that she was unarmed. She didn't even have her usual rapier equipped.

"What do you want?" Liz asked coldly coming to a rest in front of Kirito. "If you think him or any of us want you around anymore after your cheating you can forget about it."

Asuna looked down and a single tear fell from her eyes. "No," she said, "I wouldn't deserve forgiveness. Honestly, I just wanted to see you all...one last time...to say goodbye."

It was Silica who spoke up. "What do you mean, one last time. You're not quitting ALO are you?"

"In a manner of speaking," Asuna replied, not meeting their eyes. "I found out that my parents took a job in America. They told me that I could stay here and finish up school, but I am not going to. I'm leaving with them...so this is goodbye." Before any of them could respond she pulled up her menu system and quickly logged out, vanishing on the spot and leaving the group staring in stunned disbelief.

It had been three days since they had become the first party to conquer the hardest dungeon in ALO. Three days since Lisbeth had claimed her legendary mace. Three days since Asuna had appeared before them. Since she had told them that she was leaving Japan and moving to America with her family. Kazuto had mixed feelings about the whole thing. They had been through so much together, but she had betrayed him. Part of him, deep down inside would always love her, but that part of his life was over. Kazuto had only been online once since they cleared the dungeon. He was trying to spend a little more time in the real world, forging real connections in person. Today though, he really had no plans to go anywhere. It was a day to stay home and just spend time with Suguha.

As Kirito took a small sip of his soda he had a knocking echoed throughout the room. "Are you expecting company Sugu?" He asked looking over at his little sister that sat next to him.

"No," she said. "I'll see who it is thought." And with that Suguha got up and slid the door open. Kazuto couldn't see who it was, but heard Suguha talking and giggling quietly. A moment later she turned around and looked directly at him. "Kazuto," she said in a sing song voice. "It's for you."

"Hmmm," Kazuto said standing up and walking over to the door. Suguha stepped aside and he saw Rika standing there on the front porch looking both nervous and happy. "Hi Rika," he said smiling and stepping outside as Suguha closed the door behind him. "This is certainly a surprise."

"Mmhmm," Rika nodded her head. It was unlike her to just show up unannounced, but she needed to see him. "I just...I just..." Words were starting to fail her now that she was here. This was not something that she was used to. Rika was always so composed and in control of herself. She looked down at the ground, blushing heavily. "I...I just wanted to see you."

"Are you okay Rika?" Kazuto asked her.

Rika caught not only herself, but Kazuto off guard when she reached out and grabbed his hand in her own and lifted it up. Her heart was pounding harder than she could ever remember. Rika's face flushed scarlet as she lifted Kazuto's hand up and placed it on the left side of her chest, right on top of her beating heart. "Do you feel that?" She asked him quietly. "Feel how hard and fast it beats for you. It's been like that ever since we first went on that quest for that special ingot in Aincrad. I fell in love with you there and my heart has been beating like this every time I have seen you since. I've never stopped loving you" Rika looked up and met his eyes. She was fighting back tears, scared that he would turn her away, that Kazuto would reject her. "I will never stop loving you."

Kazuto stared at her stunned. He was completely speechless, but had one thing on his mind. He lifted his hand and placed it gently on the side of Rika's face and stared into her eyes. Leaning into her felt like it took an eternity, but when his lips met hers his whole world felt right. It felt like everything had fallen into place. He was right where he was supposed to be and it felt amazing. He didn't even care that Sugu was spying on them through the window or that she had let out a loud squee the minute that she saw Kazuto kiss Rika. The whole world could have been watching and he would not have given a shit. Let people watch, let people talk, Kazuto didn't care. All that mattered was what was going on right here and now. All that mattered was Liz and her love for him and his love for her. Things were finally right. They were perfect.

Author's notes:

I want to thank each and every one of you who have read and enjoyed this story. It's one that I have been sitting on for quite some time and it finally came together. I will be posting a short epilogue very soon, so look forward to that. If you want to keep up to date on what is coming next or just my everyday gaming and anime loving self, please feel free to follow me on twitter Witchywolf1


	6. Epilogue

Epilogue: Six Months Later

It had been six months since Kirito had shared a kiss with Liz that afternoon outside of his house. Six months since he had truly started to move on from Asuna. Six months of true happiness. Kirito had never felt happier. Sure, he had been happy with Asuna, but this was different. It felt different. Liz just pulled something out of Kirito. He almost felt like a different, completely new person.

"Where is she?" Kirito said out loud looking around the teleport square and a couple walking past glanced at him. This was not a floor of New Aincrad that people generally visited alone. The 47th floor was, for the most part, fully covered in bright vibrant flowers of almost every variety. It was one of the most popular places for couples to enjoy romantic walks and dates. Kirito thought back to the last time he had seen this area. It had been back in SAO, when they had all been trapped in that death game. He had brought Silica here to find the super rare Pneuma flower so she could revive Pina. This time though, Kirito was here for a completely different reason. No questing or fighting would be necessary today.

A flash of light shined behind Kirito as Liz appeared on the teleport pad looking around anxiously. She spotted Kirito and sprinted over throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry that I'm late!" She said panting. "I had several clients that were coming by to pick up custom orders."

"It's fine," Kirito said hugging her back. "We're in no rush."

Liz looked around at all of the happy couples holding hands and walking through colorful fields of pretty flowers and she blushed scarlet. "Ummm, what are we doing on this floor?" She asked looking from the flower fields and couples and back to Kirito.

"It's a surprise," Kirito said holding out his hand to Liz. "Now, close your eyes."

Liz eyed his hand suspiciously, but took it not yet closing her eyes. Kirito nodded his head indicating that she should just trust him and she did. Taking his hand, Liz closed her eyes. "Hold on tight," Kirito said kissing her lightly on the cheek and causing her to blush. He leaped high into the air, leaving the ground far below them. Liz let out a surprised shriek as she felt her feet leave the ground and the wind rush through her hair as they rocketed upwards. She too began to use her wings to help propel them along, but kept her eyes closed tight letting Kirito lead them. It was an exhilarating feeling for her, flying through the air not seeing where they were going.

They landed a few minutes later and Liz still had her eyes closed. The aroma of flowers filled her senses and she could tell that they had stopped near a forest, that like everything else on this floor, was surrounded by flower fields. The smell gave her a feeling of joy. She was starting to wonder if it was okay to open her eyes now, and Kirito answered her question before she could even open her mouth to speak. "You can look now," he said.

When Liz opened her eyes she gasped aloud. They weren't in a forest exactly, but there were several trees scattered around. A large pavilion sat in the middle of a wild flower field with a picnic table underneath it. A large water fountain was shooting water high into the air causing a light mist in the area that when the sun caught caused tiny rainbows in the air. A family of rabbits hopped along through the flowers stopping momentarily to look at Liz and Kirito before scampering off. A stone fire pit sat a little off to the left of the fountain with a few chairs surrounding it. A path of individual stones wound their way through the flowers and up to a large wrap around wooden porch. The porch surrounded a small wood cabin. It was a moderately sized single story home with a chimney that protruded from the roof. The place was really meant for two people. "What is this?" Liz asked looking from the cabin to Kirito and back.

Kirito smiled and led her by the hand up the small stairs and on to the porch. "Welcome home," he said opening the door and stepping in to the small living room that contained a love seat and coffee table. The bedroom sat off to the side of the living room and a small kitchen and dining area was on the other side. "It's not as big as the other house, and we can still use that one as a meeting place for the party, but I thought we could have used a place that you and I can call our own. I looked around at bigger ones, but the prices on this floor are ridiculously high and not much was available."

Kirito was rambling now, seemingly unable to stop himself. Liz reached up and placed a gentile finger on his lips silencing him. "Shhhhh," she said kissing him softly, but passionately. "It's perfect. Everything is perfect." She kissed him again whispered in his ear. "There is no words to describe how perfect everything is or how much I love you."

Final Notes:

Thank you once again for everyone who followed along with this story and for the kind words that were sent to me. I can not describe how much they meant to me. I love each and every one of you guys and am so happy that you took the time to read this and enjoy it. I've already got my next project in the outlining stages and will begin working on it in the next week or so. If you would like updates on it or just want to chat about games or anime in general, you can find me on Twitter Witchywolf1 Once again, thank you to every single one of my readers. You guys are the real MVP's!


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